Winthrop English Majors Recognized at International Conference

Quick Facts

Senior Alex Muller, president of the Winthrop Iota Mu Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta and editor of the Winthrop Literary Magazine The Anthology, was awarded the $4,000 Sigma Tau Delta Senior Scholarship for his outstanding scholarly and creative achievements. Senior Jeanne Stroud won the runner-up prize for the Isabel Sparks President’s Award for best paper submitted to the conference M.A. candidate Joanna Tepper and senior Ashley Moore also represented Winthrop at the conference.

Senior Alex Muller, president of the Winthrop Iota Mu Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta and editor of the Winthrop Literary Magazine The Anthology, was awarded the $4,000 Sigma Tau Delta Senior Scholarship for his outstanding scholarly and creative achievements. He was also recognized as the winner of the Frederic Fadner Award for the best critical essay in the 2014 Sigma Tau Delta Review for his article “‘Aggressive disintegration in the individual’: A Lacanian Study of Signification and Destruction of Self in Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear.’”

Muller is the second Winthrop English student in the last four years to win this prestigious national award; D. Dylan Phillips ‘12 won in 2011. Muller has applied for admission to several M.F.A. and Ph.D. programs and has been nominated by the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards for a Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award.

Also in Savannah, senior Jeanne Stroud won the runner-up prize for the Isabel Sparks President’s Award for best paper submitted to the conference for her presentation, “The Adolescent Brain in Richardson’s ‘Pamela.’” Stroud was recently accepted to UNC-Chapel Hill’s library science graduate program for 2014. Winthrop also was represented at the conference by M.A. candidate Joanna Tepper, vice-president of the Iota Mu Chapter, and senior Ashley Moore, who represented Winthrop’s Iota Mu Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta as it was recognized for its 40th anniversary.

Iota Mu Chapter Adviser Sarah Spring, assistant professor of English, praised these students for their commitment to scholarly achievement: “Although this is my first year as faculty adviser, I am incredibly impressed by the maturity, academic ability, and initiative of the students in our chapter; their research skills are among the best I’ve seen. I had the privilege of meeting with Alex and Jeanne about their work, so I am thrilled that they are being recognized!”

Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honor Society. Founded in 1924, it confers distinction for high achievement in English language and literature in undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies; provides, through its local chapters, cultural stimulation on college campuses and promotes interest in literature and the English language in surrounding communities; and fosters all aspects of the discipline of English, including literature, language, and writing.